A San Francisco woman, Michelle Huang, was the landlord of
a two-bedroom apartment in a "tenancy-in-common"
building.

Such properties aren't like condos where everyone owns a
unit privately. Instead, the people living in a unit split
ownership of the entire building, with the size of their stakes
based on the size of the unit they live in. All of their names go
on the building title.

Another neighbor and co-owner of the building, Sandeep Hingorani,
lives in the top-floor studio — and for the past 10 months
he has also rented Huang's unit, despite her not wanting him
to live there.

The problems started when an Airbnb user, "Jim Tako," asked
to rent Huang's apartment.

The labyrinth of Airbnb regulations in San Francisco makes it
harder to rent out your entire home for less than 30 days, so
Huang — as many landlords have done — switched her Airbnb rentals
so they'd last longer than one month.

"Tako" rented the unit for 60 days in April and May 2015.

Then a lawyer showed up and told Huang that the guest was
asserting his tenant's right to convert the stay into a
month-by-month rental — another byproduct of the
city's tenant laws.

That guest turned out to be Hingorani, the neighbor from the top
floor, who had been fighting with Huang for years. He described
Huang and her boyfriend as "bullies" to the
San Francisco Chronicle.

The city's rent board ruled in favor of Hingorani to stay,
although it didn't comment on how Hingorani, his mother, and a
friend came to stay in the unit in the first place, since it
was supposed to be rented to a person with a totally different
name.

Now the three, who have lived in the unit for the past 10 months,
have given notice that they're leaving — but they're saying that
Huang basically forced them out by shutting off the electricity
and making repairs without warning. The court battle is still
ongoing between the parties.

As one uninvolved neighbor who owns a piece of the
building told the Chronicle, "It's a pox on both their
houses."

Airbnb, for its part, reminds hosts to always verify who they are
renting to: "Unfortunate situations like this are rare and we are
always working to improve. We provide tools so that our
hosts can review and research their guests before they accept a
reservation. You can read a person’s profile, look for their
reviews. In addition, both hosts and guests have access to 24/7
service from our Trust and Safety Team," a spokespersono said.